Before Saturday's election, a pot-stirring controversy boils over in East Bridgewater

Wednesday

EAST BRIDGEWATER — Selectman David Sheedy vehemently denied a claim from pot proponents that he ordered volunteer greeters to hand out anti-marijuana pamphlets at Town Hall.

Quite the opposite, Sheedy said Tuesday: greeters were told not to distribute or point out pamphlets, and to not even answer questions about it.

The question arose from a press release issued Tuesday morning by several East Bridgewater residents and the Marijuana Policy Project, reporting that multiple visitors to Town Hall were handed literature by volunteer greeters.

Those greeters “informed the residents that they had been ordered to do so by selectman David Sheedy,” according to the release.

The pot controversy comes days before East Bridgewater’s annual town election Saturday, when residents will decide whether to prohibit marijuana businesses in town.

Sheedy, in a phone call with The Enterprise, said the press release was making false claims.

“I never ordered anyone to do it,” he said. “I can’t guarantee someone behind that desk handed it out, but I didn’t order anything.”

The pamphlets in question come from EB HOPE, a local substance-abuse outreach program that has advocated against marijuana businesses in town.

Susan Silva, EB HOPE’s executive director, said her organization did drop off pamphlets at Town Hall.

“Nobody demanded that our literature be handed out,” Silva said. “Nobody. It was left at Town Hall, and the opposition was notified that they had the right to do the same.”

She also said the pamphlet was for clarification purposes, making sure people were aware that a “yes” vote would be a vote to ban all marijuana business.

The pamphlet, bearing a marijuana leaf covered by a red circle with a line through it, could very well be construed as anti-marijuana. But even if it is, a civics expert said, it would not be against any law to place that literature in a public building like Town Hall.

Brian Frederick, the chair of the political science department at Bridgewater State University, said as long as there is equal opportunity, political materials like pamphlets can generally be placed in municipal buildings.

Sheedy and John Margie, chair of East Bridgewater’s Board of Selectmen, said town counsel John Clifford was consulted before the EB HOPE pamphlets were placed in Town Hall.

Pot proponents, including School Committee member Jonathan Babcock and East Bridgewater resident LisaJeanne Theriault, stood by the claim that Sheedy was connected to the alleged distribution of pamphlets.

Theriault said she visited Town Hall about two weeks ago. She said a greeter told her they were first asked to pass out pamphlets, and later advised to stop passing them out.

“We had a long conversation about Dave (Sheedy) bringing them in,” she told the Enterprise Wednesday. “And we discussed how they were asked to pass them out.”

Theriault said by the time she visited Town Hall, the pamphlets had been moved, and greeters had been informed to stop passing the pamphlets out.

“[The greeter] said that morning, they were told to stop passing them out,” she said.

Babcock said at least six people reported being handed pamphlets from greeters.

The greeters at Town Hall are typically volunteers from the Council on Aging.

Babcock said he and fellow residents have filed complaints with the State Ethics Commission and the Office of Campaign and Political Finance against Sheedy and Margie. They also filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking emails from town employees relating to the distribution of pamphlets.

“If indeed it turns out they were using town resources for this, that’s what I find upsetting,” Babcock said. “It's up to the ethics commission to decide if a violation took place. It’s in the hands of the ethics commission now.”

Jim Borghesani, a spokesman for the pro-cannabis Marijuana Policy Project in Massachusetts, said he believed town officials were employing “political dirty tricks.”

“This goes far beyond the standard reefer-madness hyperbole we routinely encounter at local elections.” Borghesani said. “These residents deserve enormous credit for defending the will of voters and for calling attention to such underhanded campaign tactics.”

Saturday’s election will take place at East Bridgewater Junior-Senior High School from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The town could join a growing list of Massachusetts towns (including Raynham, Stoughton, Bridgewater and Whitman) to prohibit pot shops. Brockton is currently looking into a zoning plan that would allow for marijuana retailers downtown.

"Whoever comes out on top, we'll move on from there," Sheedy said. "It's called democracy."

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